What I Drank Last Night

Last night the launch of Magna Carta 2009, the flagship offering from Constantia winery Steenberg, this being the second ever release after the 2007 vintage, the 2008 not producing wine of sufficient quality to bear Magna Carta designation. The 2009 is a blend of 60% Sauvingon Blanc and 40% Semillon, the latter component fermented in [...]

On Wednesday lunch at the site of the Battle of Muizenberg for the launch of HMS Rattlesnake Sauvignon Blanc 2010 and the HMS Sphynx Chardonnay 2010, two new wines from Constantia winery Steenberg. In a world of twee wine names, two to conjure with: Rattlesnake and Sphynx, being part of the squadron of ten Royal [...]

This year’s Chardonnay tasting to be reported on in the November issue of WINE magazine has attracted 173 examples (28 unwooded and 145 wooded) submissions compared to 150 (19 unwooded and 131 wooded) in 2009. The panel is Carrie Adams of Johannesburg retailer Norman Goodfellows, wine writer Angela Lloyd, Woolworths wine selector Allan Mullins, JD Pretorius, [...]

Post the Nebbiolo tasting at Steenberg on Wednesday morning, an excellent lunch at on-site restaurant Bistro 1682 consisting of marrow bones on toast, followed by steak tartare, an animal protein blow-out that offset the high-natural acidity, high tannin wines left over from our earlier  endeavours. Once our repast was over, it was not difficult to [...]

For a pretty wide spread of wine scores, check out how the Steenberg Shiraz 2008 did in this year’s Global Trader Shiraz Challenge convened by WINE magazine: I gave it 14 on the 20-point scale, Carrie Adams of Johannesburg wine retailer Norman Goodfellows 14.5, James Pietersen, beverage manager for Cape Town restaurants Balducci’s and Belthazar [...]

One of the producers I will be reviewing for Platter’s 2011 is Constantia Uitsig and on Monday, I joined viticulturist and winemaker André Rosseau as well as marketing manager Francois Theunissen for a discussion of the new-release wines followed by lunch at La Colombe, twelfth on this year’s list of the world’s 50 best restaurants [...]